The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

Politics is the art of the possible.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.